More than ever I feel the need of having Thee close to me.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Corinthians 12:7-10

Thursday, 31 May 2012

I mean, even the most liberal of liberal Catholics must see that all is not fair and equal.
On the one hand we have the Holy Father issuing a Motu Proprio (now five years ago) stating quite clearly the grounds for provision of the Latin Mass (TLM) and, indeed, distinguishing the Latin Mass as being an "Extraordinary" form of the Mass and the Novus Ordo version as being an "Ordinary" form.

Two versions of Mass, both to be made available at the request of the laity.

Could you imagine, for one instant, the howls of anger and dismay if the current situation was reversed and their Lordships issued a notice to the effect that the OF Mass would only be available at one parish in one hundred but that the EF Mass would be available at every parish?

I can imagine it. What is more, I pray daily for it to happen as it surely will but, perhaps, not in my lifetime.

There are, of course, solutions to the problem.

I shall ignore the one regarding all of the Bishops having a change of conscience overnight and then welcoming their priest onto training courses to enable them to celebrate the Latin Mass.

There is another solution. One that would instantly obliterate carping traditional Catholics such as me.

Balance - one in twenty is not rocket science!

And that is, to allow one parish in every twenty to become an EF Mass parish.
One where Holy Mass would be offered on a Sunday, not at 4pm or at 7.30pm but at 8am and 10.30am - times that suit families and those of us who just wish to attend at a normal hour.

Is that asking too much? Is it being grossly greedy and invasive?

It would mean, for example, that the Archdiocese of Westminster would have a provision of around ten Latin Masses on a Sunday as opposed to the current three to four.

My own Diocese of Menevia would move from one Sunday EF Mass to two (I cannot verify the number of parish churches as the website is not working, but believe that I am close to the correct number).

So, in an area covering something like 500 square miles, there would be two parishes offering a Latin Mass, EF version each Sunday (hopefully not adjacent parishes).

That seems to me to be very fair and equable, overly modest, even.

But, it would make a great many people wish that they were capable of turning triple somersaults and leaping for joy, in fact, they would become quite unbalanced.

I think that the liberal lobby and even Clifford Longley and Ms Pepinster might vote for that strategy.

Driving back from the East of England on Monday evening I listened to Radio Four's "Just a Minute" show, hosted by Nicholas Parsons.
For those unfamiliar with the programme, the panel of four guests are given a topic to speak about for one minute without deviation, hesitation or digression. So far so good. It is normally quite entertaining (a lecture on the development of scart plugs would be entertaining if you were driving back from Peterborough) and it normally carries a few slightly risque asides that can be amusing.

But Monday night's panel included one, Julian Clary, a man who professes to be a homosexual and appears on many shows dressed up as a woman (it is about here that I begin to get confused by the whole LGBT thing).

Real men don't discuss such things...do they?

OK.........not my cup of Lapsang but I am, as the few readers of this blog know, a very mild and even tempered chap......hmm....

Sadly, Clary went several steps beyond the acceptable.
He began by describing either a real or an imaginary night out with a male friend.
I will leave it there, please believe me it was not the sort of stuff you would wish for your mother to hear, or your children for that matter and I am not so sure I would wish for the family dog to hear it.

I am not going to quote what he went on to say (you can listen to it online I believe) but he did go on to speak in salacious and obscene double entendres, referring to fairly fundamental parts of the human anatomy.

Not only was this not nice, it was dirty and shabby.

I cannot imagine a heterosexual person speaking in such a fashion; if they did they would probably not be invited back.
Homosexuals do seem to delight in 'kiss and tell' tales and they do love the intimate detail. Whether it is an innate desire to shock or a genuine perverted sense of what is right I do not know.
But I have experienced it many, many times in my working life and, the sad thing is that it is all so unnecessary.

So, from now on, "Just a Minute" will be known as the show that DOES allow deviation, perversion and pure, unadulterated filth.

Again, priests were being hanged, drawn and quartered for
their faith but, in addition, they were overwhelmingly dying because of their
adherence to the Latin Mass.

It was the Mass that was the focal point for their
sufferings.

So much so that every priest that set foot on the scaffold
was, in essence, ascending to the altar and Calvary
was about to be replayed again in a bloody fashion.

Why was this?

Because, of course, the Latin Mass is the most complete
liturgical devotion of the Catholic Faith.

It incorporates all the essentials necessary for our belief
to grow and for our soul to be imbued with grace; it contains penitence,
repentance, forgiveness, elements of the life of Christ and, finally, the
ultimate sacrifice of Christ on our behalf and then His resurrection from the
dead.

It is, in short, a Mass worth dying for.

Today, May 29th is the feastday of Blessed
Richard Thirkell or Thirkeld. He was a priest in the North of England who,
after being ordained exclaimed:

“God alone knows how
great a gift this is that hath been conferred on me this day”

And from an extract on this saint……

Holy Mass was his
constant thought, and it produced in his soul such daily increase of Divine
love and heavenly courage that he desired nothing more than, in return for what
Christ had done for him, to shed also his blood in Christ and for Christ.

For eight whole years his prayers
were that he might one day lay down his life for his faith, and this was at
length granted him.

He was apprehended and tried at York. He appeared at the
bar a venerable old man in his priest’s cassock, and acknowledged that he was a
priest and had performed priestly functions.

He was found guilty and spent the
night instructing the criminals and preparing them for death.

On entering the court the next
morning he publicly blessed four Catholic prisoners there present, and a brave
old woman who knelt to receive it defended his actions by saying that as a
minister of Christ he had the power to bless in His name.

He received the sentence of death
with great joy, and so finished his course, York, May 29, 1583.

Blessed Richard – Ora
pro nobis

Bl Richard Thirkell’s address to his fellow prisoners

"If the judges and commissioners have seized unjustly your goods,
Christ your King will grant you to receive in this world a hundred-fold for
every farthing you have lost, and in the world to come eternal life and bliss
that shall never know an end. If wicked gaolers use force and cruelty,
continually annoy and torment, frequently examine and persecute you, let not
all these things cause you the least trouble of mind or make you remiss in the
divine service. You will see that Christ will visit you the more quickly, that
He will give you greater consolations day by day, and will make His throne in
your hearts with the more frequency and the more pleasure. Therefore be of good
cheer, beloved, clap with your hands, yea, let every member of your bodies
exult with joy, in that you have a cause so noble, Christ for your Captain, the
Holy Ghost for your Comforter, and for your advocates and defenders the Blessed
Virgin Mary, the Angels, the Holy Apostles, the Martyrs, the Confessors, the
Virgins, the blood of your fathers so freshly spilt which cries aloud to Heaven
to obtain for you perseverance to the end."

Saturday, 26 May 2012

O glorious St. Philip, who wast so favored by God with the gift of consoling and assisting thy spiritual children at the hour of death, be also my advocate and father when I shall find myself at that dreadful moment. Obtain for me that at that hour the devil may not conquer me, nor temptation overcome me, nor fear itself revile me; but that, strengthened by a lively faith, a fervent hope and, a sincere charity, I may sustain with patience and perseverance that supreme struggle, and that, full of confidence in the mercy of the Lord, and in the infinite merits of Jesus Christ and the protection of the Most Blessed Mary, I may deserve to die the death of the just, and be united with thee and all the saints in the blessed home of Paradise, to praise and enjoy the Lord forever. Amen.

At the end of April our daughter Catherine returned from her mission to Ethiopia where
she and thirteen other surgeons and nurses operated for 12 hours at a stretch
on the maimed, diseased and ravaged faces of, in the main, children.

It was, quite obviously, a profound and moving experience;
half way through her stint she managed to get a skype connection and we were
able to see her and hear her news. I have never seen her so animated, so
totally enchanted with the experience, despite that fact that it was both
gruesome and gruelling.

Here are a few points from her conversation then and also
from what she has since told me.

I have used a bullet point format as, really, the story is
Catherine’s and I am sure that, one day soon, when she has drawn breath, she
will wish to tell it in her own words.

The
team all sacrificed a considerable amount of personal belongings when
packing their cases, in order to make up the weight difference with drugs
and equipment. Sadly, the Ethiopian customs officials seized it all and
did not return these vital supplies until the last day. That meant that
operations were carried out with the most basic of resources and patients
had to recover from major surgery without the benefit of painkilling
morphine.

Food
and drink for the medical team was basic and only showed up sporadically.
The diet was unvaried throughout.

The
patients were not served food and drink by the Ethiopian medics as they
had no containers or cups. The British team bought plastic bags (so that
the curry slops could be poured in and then given to each patient) and
then they bought bottled water and cut up the bottles to make cups for
water.There is no system of food and drink provision unless you have relatives to bring it in for you.

The
team was approached to help a nine year old boy whose face had been ripped
off by hyenas. This is the story:-

A group was returning at night
from a wedding celebration when they were attacked by a pack of hyenas. Two
children were killed and the nine year old boy maimed before the group managed
to get to safety. Apart from his horrendous facial injuries the boy was left
with a large hole in his skull. The three plastic surgeons discussed the
problem during the course of an evening and then announced that they would
operate using a groundbreaking technique. Normally, such surgery would involve
a flap of skin taken from the forearm being grafted over the gaping wound but,
under the less than ideal conditions in Addis
Ababa, this would certainly fail. Instead they left
the flap attached to the boy’s forearm (ensuring a blood supply that would aid
the healing process) but grafted it to his head so that his arm was firmly
fixed to his forehead. He will remain like that for two weeks before they can
be certain of success.

· A
young Ethiopian Catholic nun was assigned as a trainee to Catherine so
that she could learn

western nursing practice.

I have omitted a large amount of detail in order not to
prejudice the operational freedom of individuals or the aid organisations;
there is much more to tell and most of it is horrific.

But, she wants to go back again next year.

Thank you to all who so very generously donated towards the
mission, Project Harar.

Friday, 25 May 2012

If there are Catholics out there who hate the Jews or discriminate against them in any way, then they are in big trouble, or, at least, their souls are.

To inflict racial, sectarian (or homosexual) hatred against your fellow man is to be in breach of the fifth commandment and that means, to be in a state of mortal sin.

Surely no Catholic would wish to enter into such a state?

A Jew died to save the world - so how can we "hate" them?

Aah….of course, I was forgetting that certain Bishop. Now I am the last person to be an apologist on his behalf but….has he actually expressed hatred?

Certainly he has cast doubts over the existence of the gas chambers but does that constitute racial hatred or sectarianism? I doubt it.

It may show an irrational mind and it may be a screen for something worse but, on its own it hardly merits coverage.

We used to sing our Lent and Easter hymns quite happily once, chirruping away about “…while Jews deride..”and in our liturgy we spoke of "perfidious Jews". Well, it was a perfidious act was it not?

Is that racial hatred?

I always thought that we were just recognising that it was the Jews that gave Our Lord up for Pilate’s judgement.

The Jews schemed, pushed and started proceedings and the Romans concluded the affair.

Or, have I got it wrong?

When we condemn Mao Tse Tung or Stalin for the various genocidal purges that they carried out are we being racist? Or just objective and honest?

If we then lay the blame for the death of Christ largely on the Jews are we not again being honest and objective.

There is one blogger who believes that I am a racist because I have expressed a dislike of the practice or recruiting priests from Africa and India (in particular) to come and work in parishes in England and Wales, permanently, that is.

I think that is wrong. For a start their own countries, who have funded their training, desperately need them.
I also believe that they can offer a limited amount to the British parishes they are appointed to. And I have good proof of that.

I can also recall an unholy row a few years ago because the Health Service and some schools were “poaching” doctors, nurses and teachers from third world countries, giving them a brief bit of updating training and then using them to plug the gaps in health and education.

That was wrong because it deprived the developing world of badly needed highly skilled people.

So, I dislike the practice, not the individuals; I dislike the homosexual system, not the individuals.

I am not too keen on Jews either; again, not the individuals or the race.

It is more an issue of behaviour, characteristics, if you will. I certainly would not work for a Jewish company but I don’t think that means that I am anti-semitic in any way.

There are several nationalities or faiths that I would not wish to find myself beholden to.

To me that is no different from stating that you would not wish to work for X company because you dislike their method of operation. Racism does not enter into it. Preference is not the same as hatred.

Maybe it would be better put to state that I prefer not to mix commercially with certain races.

I am happy to have them as my friends although, in truth, I do not seek them out.

I veer towards Catholic friends, with a few notable exceptions. Life is easier and more relaxed if, forgive me, you are all singing off the same plainchant score.

And it does appear to be anathema for anyone to "hate" Jews when we owe our very existence to one.

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

OK this is not quite Swansea Cathedral butwe will still have the King of Kings present

If you recall with a certain longing, the annual Corpus Christi Mass, processions and devotions or, if you have never been to Mass in the Extraordinary Form on the great feast of Corpus Christi, then please stop what you are doing and make a note in the diary, book the train or plane and go to Laterooms.com to find a hotel for the night.

Why? Because the second city of Wales, Swansea, and to be more precise St Joseph's Cathedral, mother church of the Diocese of Menevia, will be hosting an evening Sung Mass at 7pm.

This is an opportunity not to be missed; and, if EWTN would like to televise the Mass, then they or others would be most welcome.

The last bus for Rome is about to leave and the three SSPX Bishops who are having difficulty in signing up to Bishop Fellay's joint plan with the CDF need to make up their minds, pronto! Or the Holy Father will make up their minds for them.

It is a cause for sorrow that the Society is verging on a split but there is at least one Bishop whose loss will not be mourned.

Father Paul Morgan, Superior of the British District of the Society, has been reported as being "disappointed" (we presume at the 'breakdown') of the talks; and there is speculation that he will lead the British District away from the table.

It may be distasteful to discuss the issue of property and goods, rather like relatives gathering around a much loved family member in their final moments and dividing up the spoil before there is even a corpse, but, in this instance, it could be a matter of spiritual life or death for many Catholic families who, at present, legitimately attend SSPX Masses but for whom, lies an uncertain future.

Who will inherit the family silver?

Not Fr Morgan and his group, surely? They are really tenants for the Swiss HQ of the Society.

If this is the case then, assuming that Rome and Econe are as one, Bishop Fellay will have to despatch squads of his priests to assume control over Bristol, Wimbledon, London and all other SSPX Mass centres.

And Fr Morgan and co will have to do the other thing.

One thing is certain, it will not be a happy situation. For all of those concerned.

Maybe we should all go down on our knees to the Saint whose feast it is tomorrow (Tuesday 22nd May).....it is...of course.....St Rita..........Patron of Hopeless Causes.

Saturday, 19 May 2012

No silly capering or prancing, no guitars or liturgical dancing......these images spell out for me the essence of the Catholic faith, the traditional Catholic faith.
Thanks to Christine at Laudem Gloriae

Imagine this scenario if you will; a serene and isolated monastery, far from the bright lights and dark shadows and....(enter left)...an ex Jesuit priest (bad enough if he was a Jesuit full stop).

Ex J advances to mid stage and addresses a group of cowed looking parish priests (wrested from their busy parishes where they are on call for anointing the dying and the sick and other odd chores such as burying the dead).

"Gather round" states the ex J; "I want you to connect with your inner selves, make a circle and place your arms across the shoulder of the brother priests on your left and right - now let us all release our pent up emotions and groan, that's right, groan, I can feel your pain.

Let it all out Fathers, hang loose and feel the tension leaving your body, empty your minds and reflect on things such as climate warming and how wonderful it would be to have a partner and how utterly awful it is to have an inflexible authority telling you what to believe and how to behave....."

This continues for two whole days.

What is it? It's a special retreat for priests. And it's taking place in a diocese near you!

Actually it's absolute tosh and a total waste of time and money - but, hey!................

Late last night I posted a portion of a communique issued by the anti Catholic mob coalition issued on 4th May.

The question has been posed: "Just what do they think they will do?"

I would not like to put ideas into anyone's head but a fairly obvious speculation is that they would disrupt Masses and make life generally very tough for our priests (by employing some of the dark arts of the animal rights terrorists).

One action we are sure of, they plan a sit in at Churches throughout the land (world?). That will not be good. Sunday June 3rd is their date for the big sit in, pray that common sense will prevail.

Here is the communique in full. It does not require any comment from me:

Catholic
Church Faces Disruption and Banishment as Irish Cardinal set to resign

A
Communique from ITCCS International, Brussels and Dublin: May 4, 2012

Survivors
of church torture in Ireland met with Archbishop Martin in Dublin today and
presented him and the church ten non-negotiable demands; if the church does not
comply, it will face more occupations

The Roman
Catholic Church faces permanent disruption and banishment in at least five
countries if it does not comply with ten “non-negotiable measures” by
September 15, 2012, according to a global coalition of survivors of
church rape and torture.

The list of measures was issued today at a
meeting in Dublin, Ireland between Archbishop Dermot Martin and representatives
of Anti Catholic Church Activists Worldwide (ACCAW), Magdalene Laundry
survivors, and the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State –
Ireland (ITCCS).

The measures demanded of the Catholic Church include the
defrocking of all child raping priests, the licensing of all other clergy as
public servants, the return of the remains of all who died under Church care,
the annulment of tax exemptions and other Church privileges, and the return of
all of the Church’s wealth generated by the exploitation of children.

The
full statement outlining these measures is reproduced below, including an
attached audio recording of the statement.

Issued on the eve of the
impending resignation of the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal
Sean Brady, for his protection of child raping priests, the statement was
delivered by John Deegan of ACCAW and ITCCS Ireland members Gerry O’Donovan and
Dave O’Brien, who confronted Archbishop Martin with the demands.

The Ten
Point statement was issued by The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church
and State, an umbrella organization of over fifty organizations in the United
States, Canada, Ireland, England and Australia.

“Pope Benedict
and his Bishops have until midnight on September 15 to start complying
with these measures” said ITCCS Secretary Kevin Annett today.

“After
that, we will begin actions to halt the normal operation of the Roman Catholic
Church around the world, and we will seek indictments against Pope Benedict and
other Vatican officials for crimes against humanity and criminal
conspiracy.”

The ACCAW, ITCCS and other groups have staged high profile
occupations of Catholic churches during their regular services, and plan to
escalate these actions into “a permanent campaign of non-violent disruption and
civil disobedience aimed at the Roman Catholic Church … until the Church’s reign
of terror over children is ended.”

Issued May 4, 2012 by ITCCS
International – BrusselsInformation: genocidetribunal@yahoo.ca or
250-591-4573 (Canada) and cliogarvin@hotmail.com or godonothing@gmail.com
(Ireland)

An Open
Letter to Archbishop Dermot Martin and the Bishops and Clergy of Ireland, from
The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and
StateIssued to a meeting with Archbishop Martin on May 4,
2012My name is Kevin Annett and I am the Secretary of the
five-nation body known as The International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and
State (ITCCS). I am speaking on behalf of the ITCCS and our affiliate
organization in Ireland.

Our coalition represents over fifty
organizations in Canada, the United States, Ireland, England and Australia,
including many survivors of church terror.

We have also been recognized
by seven aboriginal nations in North America, and been authorized by them to
recover the remains of their relatives who died in Catholic Indian residential
schools and orphanages; and to bring to justice those responsible for the death
of over 50,000 children in these church-run institutions.

Let us state
clearly that the time for polite talk is over.

The Roman Catholic Church
has imposed and is perpetrating a reign of terror and crimes against humanity on
generations of children, is actively concealing those crimes and protecting
child rapists and murderers in its ranks, and has shown no desire or capacity to
change the policies or practices that allow these unspeakable crimes to
continue.

Nevertheless, on behalf of the nations and survivors we
represent, and the Executive Council of the International Tribunal into Crimes
of Church and State, I have been authorized to give the Church a final
opportunity to change, by presenting the following demands to the Roman Catholic
Church in Ireland, as we have already done to Pope Benedict,
Joseph Ratzinger, and Vatican officials.

The following concrete actions
by the Church are required if justice is to be won for its victims and if the
crimes it has committed and continue to cover up are to end.

If the
Church fails to abide by these basic commandments of humanity and the law, we
will take permanent action to end its criminal regime.

1. The Church must
issue full reparations to all of its victims, including by paying for all of
their medical and counseling bills, the cost of their rehabilitation and
retraining, and for any of their disabilities and losses.

2. The Church
must surrender for a proper burial, without conditions and at its own expense,
the remains of all those who died in its institutions or while under its
care.

3. The Church must return all land and property taken from its
victims, and restore all of the wealth generated by its exploitation of them as
children, including the wealth created from their unpaid or low paid
labor.

4. The Church must surrender without conditions all of the
evidence of its crimes against children, and all of those persons responsible
for committing these crimes and concealing them, including its highest
officials. The Church must fully disclose this evidence and participate without
conditions in all public investigations into its crimes.

5. The
Church and its guilty parties cannot hide behind so-called diplomatic immunity
or other privileges to evade justice and avoid prosecution. The Vatican must end
its official cover up and annul its policy known as Crimen Sollicitationis,
which compels Catholic clergy to conceal crimes committed against children in
their parishes.

6. The Church must immediately expel and defrock all
known child raping priests, officials and employees in its ranks, and defrock
any clergy who harms a child or conceals such harm.

7. All clergy and
Church officials must agree to be licensed and monitored as public servants, and
take a legally binding, public oath to protect without conditions the rights and
sanctity of children and disclose any harm done to them.

8. The Church
must forgo and withdraw from all of the tax exemptions, financial concordats and
agreements, and other special privileges presently granted to it under the laws
of nations.

9. The Vatican must agree to the annulment of its status as a
so-called state, and free its congregations and dioceses from its authority so
that they may act according to the wishes and needs of their respective
communities and their faith, and not the political and financial requirements of
the Vatican.

10. All of the wealth accumulated by the Church and the
Vatican Bank through land theft and conquest, and from tax exemptions,
concordats, and from its operations around the world that have harmed children
through the exploitation of their labor, such as the Magdalene Laundries and
Indian residential schools, must be returned to its victims and to the poor in
general through a direct, public redistribution of that wealth, as Christ
himself commands.

We have been instructed to inform the Bishops
of Ireland, as we have notified the Vatican, that they
have until September 15, 2012, to agree to these demands and implement these ten
measures. If they fail to commence to do so by midnight of that
date, we will enact the following
measures:1. The Roman Catholic Church will be formally and
forever banished from our communities, and measures will be taken to legally and
practically prevent it from operating;

2. Roman Catholic
churches, agencies and offices around the world will be permanently disrupted
and occupied as part of an ongoing campaign of non-violent civil disobedience;
and

3. Our International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State will
reconvene its court, and will seek the immediate detaining for questioning of
the highest officials of your Roman Catholic Church, including Pope Benedict, on
charges of obstruction of justice, criminal conspiracy, and crimes against
humanity.

It is
time for all people of conscience within the Church to choose who they
will serve: a self-governing, criminal church system that sets itself
above the law and God – or its suffering victims, and justice.

We urge
Catholics to choose life, by making these ten steps a reality. Otherwise, the
Roman Catholic Church will have forfeited its right to operate in our
communities and in our world.

By this declaration, we are lending our
active support to the Irish survivors of rape and torture by the Roman Catholic
Church who are meeting with Archbishop Martin today. These survivors include
members of ACCAW, the ITCCS, and Magdalene laundry victims.

We stand
as a united front with these brothers and sisters, and with all victims of
Church terror anywhere in the world. We will never stop until justice is
achieved, and the reign of terror against children everywhere is
ended.

We will be sharing this letter with our affiliates around the
world, as well as with the global media, judicial bodies, and
governments.

We welcome a formal response from the office of Archbishop
Martin, and we call upon the Church to accept the demands and wishes of the
Irish survivors who are meeting today with Archbishop Martin.

Signed on
behalf of The Executive Council of The International Tribunal into Crimes of
Church and State

A vague but sinister threat to "halt the normal operation of the Roman Catholic Church around the world" has been made by a coalition group comprising the Anti Catholic Church Activists Worldwide (ACCAW), the Magdalene Laundry Survivors and the International Tribunal into Crimes of the Church and State (ITCCS).

They have set a deadline of September 15th for the Church to comply with ten non negotiable demands, these are:-

1. The Church must issue full reparations to all of its victims, including by
paying for all of their medical and counseling bills, the cost of their
rehabilitation and retraining, and for any of their disabilities and
losses.

2. The Church must surrender for a proper burial, without
conditions and at its own expense, the remains of all those who died in its
institutions or while under its care.

3. The Church must return all land
and property taken from its victims, and restore all of the wealth generated by
its exploitation of them as children, including the wealth created from their
unpaid or low paid labor.

4. The Church must surrender without conditions
all of the evidence of its crimes against children, and all of those persons
responsible for committing these crimes and concealing them, including its
highest officials. The Church must fully disclose this evidence and participate
without conditions in all public investigations into its
crimes.

5. The
Church and its guilty parties cannot hide behind so-called diplomatic immunity
or other privileges to evade justice and avoid prosecution. The Vatican must end
its official cover up and annul its policy known as Crimen Sollicitationis,
which compels Catholic clergy to conceal crimes committed against children in
their parishes.

6. The Church must immediately expel and defrock all
known child raping priests, officials and employees in its ranks, and defrock
any clergy who harms a child or conceals such harm.

7. All clergy and
Church officials must agree to be licensed and monitored as public servants, and
take a legally binding, public oath to protect without conditions the rights and
sanctity of children and disclose any harm done to them.

8. The Church
must forgo and withdraw from all of the tax exemptions, financial concordats and
agreements, and other special privileges presently granted to it under the laws
of nations.

9. The Vatican must agree to the annulment of its status as a
so-called state, and free its congregations and dioceses from its authority so
that they may act according to the wishes and needs of their respective
communities and their faith, and not the political and financial requirements of
the Vatican.

10. All of the wealth accumulated by the Church and the
Vatican Bank through land theft and conquest, and from tax exemptions,
concordats, and from its operations around the world that have harmed children
through the exploitation of their labor, such as the Magdalene Laundries and
Indian residential schools, must be returned to its victims and to the poor in
general through a direct, public redistribution of that wealth, as Christ
himself commands.

This smells of radical and rabid anti Catholicism at work..a full account to be published soon.

Friday, 18 May 2012

Those who love the EF Mass can drone on for hours without having any apparent effect on their modernist friends and relations but it's not until you see the two, back to back, that the full horror of the OF sham is revealed.

And before you reach for the comments box let me say that I do believe the OF to be valid (in the main) and it can be reverent, in the hands of a good priest. But it remains "ordinary." No amount of bezazz and pew cuddling can change it from its ordinary aspect, that's why the Holy Father nominated it as ordinary.

The same applies to the Extraordinary Form. It is "extraordinary" and it fulfils all one could desire in terms of worship, adoration, penitence and reverence.

Watch the clip and decide for yourself (not that I doubt that most will agree).

And one commenter on the clip made the statement that, in the "old days" priests used to brag about how quickly they could say the Latin Mass (often in twenty minutes).

What's the problem? If you have a priest with a good Latin tongue and a server who knows his stuff, of course, Low Mass will be over in a little more than twenty minutes. No loss of reverence or respect.

Those were the Masses attended by the workers before they caught the tube into the city, they had to be delivered competently and so they were.

Thursday, 17 May 2012

Mass for the feast of The Ascension was glorious today (all Masses are glorious, yes, I know) but, for a sung Mass in rural Fishguard, it was glorious; we had a congregation of some 20 or 25 which is pretty good going.

For my sins I was the sole server, MC and bottle washer and all went well until Holy Communion and, in holding the communion plate I suddenly ran into trouble.

A pair of hands was thrust out over the plate and I was faced with the dilemma; to carry on and force the plate under the chin of the recipient or to stand back.In order to avoid any irreverence to the Body and Blood of Christ I stood back.

Next, and yet another pair of hands and yet another and another.

Slowly, very slowly, a few cogs clicked rustily into place. The hands, in each case, belonged to women of a certain age, wearing M & S cardigans and with hair styles that looked as if Mad Max had taken a pair of shears to them after a heavy session on jungle juice.

It could only mean one thing. They were nuns...not just any old nuns, M & S nuns you understand.

I felt like shouting: "You know what beeping rubrics are don't you?" But I didn't.

This...is not...most definitely not.......an M & S nun!

After Mass, in the sacristy, the priest told me that he had offered up the Mass for a friend of his, one Byron Harries, who died in March this year.

I knew the name but could not recall his provenance in any detail so I scurried to Google (after a post Mass feast in the local hostelry with good Catholics and much hearty laughter) - this post is beginning to sound a trifle "Aunty-ish" - sorry.

Byron Harris was a scholar and, even more, a Latin scholar. I do not know much about his life except that, for a time, he was an SSPX man, and no shame in that.

Thanks to Google I came across his link with the one man that stood firm when all around him was turgid and vile; Michael Davies (another Welshman).

And, even more, I found that Byron had done some research into communion by hand on behalf of Michael and that the researches had come out unequivocally in favour of the fact that reception by mouth is the correct way to receive the Son of God.

I am not normally, a lengthy poster. My brain tends to freeze after 300 words or more, so please forgive what, for me, must be the longest post ever (but it is the summer of the Olympics, is it not?).

Just as a teaser, here is an extract from a paper by Michael Davies, supported by research undertaken by the late Byron Harries.

The extract itself is long, very long, but please read it all if you are able. It carries some real gems, including this one:

"If you have lost something, and you think it might be under your bed, you kneel down to look underneath it. This does not mean anything. It is the natural thing to do. But kneeling can also be a very special symbol. In feudal times a man knelt before his overlord.

He put his hands between the hands of his lord and made his oath, promising to be a true and faithful servant. This is called paying homage. It is still done today before a king or queen. When the Queen of England was crowned in 1953, each lord of the realm knelt before her, put his hands between hers, and promised to be a true and loyal subject.

Kneeling down before another person is always a sign of respect for someone greater. The greatest kind of respect is called reverence. That is why it is a very ancient custom for men to kneel down before their God and worship Him. The Moslems, followers of the Arab prophet named Mohammed, do not only kneel down. They also touch the ground with their foreheads when they worship Allah, as they call God".

MEMORIALE DOMINI Instruction on the Manner of Administering Holy Communion

The Congregation for Divine Worship on May 29, 1969 "When it celebrates the memorial of the Lord, by that rite the Church witnesses to its faith and adoration of Christ, who is present in the sacrifice and who is given as food to those who share in the Eucharistic table. For this reason it is of great concern that the Eucharist be celebrated and shared in most worthily and fruitfully, by observing unchanged the tradition that has reached us step by step, the tradition whose riches have been poured into the practice and life of the Church. The documents of history demonstrate that the ways of celebrating and receiving the holy Eucharist have been diverse. Even in our time many and important ritual changes have been introduced into the celebration of the Eucharist in order to bring it into accord with the spiritual and psychological needs of men today.

Because of circumstances, communion under both kinds, bread and wine, which was once common in the Latin rite but had fallen into disuse little by little, has again been made a part of the discipline governing the faithful’s mode of receiving the holy Sacrament.

At the time of the Council of Trent a different situation had arisen and was in effect everywhere; the Council approved and defended it as suited to the conditions of that period.

With the renewal of the modes of communicating, however, the sign of the Eucharistic meal and the complete fulfilment of Christ’s mandate have been effected more clearly and vividly. At the same time a full sharing in the celebration of the Eucharist, expressed through Sacramental communion, has recently stirred up in some places the desire to return to the practice by which the Eucharistic bread is placed in the hand of the faithful who communicates himself by putting it in his mouth demonstrate that the ways of celebrating and receiving the holy Eucharist have been diverse. Even in our time many and important ritual changes have been introduced into the celebration of the Eucharist in order to bring it into accord with the spiritual and psychological needs of men today.

In some communities and localities this rite has even been performed without obtaining the

prior approval of the Apostolic See and occasionally without appropriate preparation for the people. It is true that, according to ancient usage, it was once permitted for the faithful to take the sacred food in their hands and themselves to place it in their mouths and even, in the earliest period, to carry the holy Sacrament with them from the place of celebration, especially in order to receive it as viaticum if they should have to suffer for the profession of the faith.

Nevertheless the precepts of the Church and the writings of the Fathers give abundant witness to the great reverence and prudence shown to the holy Eucharist. For “no one... eats this flesh unless first he adores,” and each recipient is warned: “...receive it and take care that none of it be lost to you”: “for it is the body of Christ.”

In the meantime the care and ministry of the Body and Blood of the Lord was entrusted in a quite special way to sacred ministers or to persons assigned to this function: “After the president has completed the prayers and all the people have made the acclamation, those among us whom we call deacons distribute a part of the bread and wine and water, in which the thanksgiving has been made, to each one present and bring them to those who are absent.”

The office of bringing the Eucharist to those who were absent was soon entrusted to sacred ministers alone, for the reason that greater care might be shown for the reverence due to the Body of Christ as well as for the needs of the people.

In the following period, after the true meaning of the Eucharistic mystery, its effect, and the presence of Christ in it had been profoundly investigated, from a pressing sense of reverence toward this holy Sacrament and of the humility which its reception demands, the custom was introduced by which the minister himself would place the piece of consecrated bread on the tongue of the communicants. In view of the state of the Church as a whole today, this manner of distributing Holy Communion must be observed, not only because it rests upon a tradition of many centuries but especially because it is a sign of the reverence of the faithful toward the Eucharist. The practice in no way detracts from the personal dignity of those who approach this great Sacrament and it is a part of the preparation needed for the most fruitful reception of the Lord’s body.

This reverence is a sign of communion not in “common bread and drink” but in the Body and Blood of the Lord. By it “the people of God shares in the blessings of the paschal sacrifice, renews the new covenant once made by God with man in the Blood of Christ, and in faith and hope prefigures and anticipates the eschatological banquet in the kingdom of the Father.”

In addition, this manner of communicating, which is now to be considered as prescribed by custom, gives more effective assurance that Holy Communion will be distributed with the appropriate reverence, decorum, and dignity; that any danger of profaning the Eucharistic species, in which “the whole and entire Christ, God and man, is substantially contained and permanently present in a unique way,”will be avoided; and finally that the diligent care which the Church has always commended for the very fragments of the consecrated bread will be maintained: “If you have allowed anything to be lost, consider this a lessening of your own members.”

On this account, since some few episcopal conferences and individual bishops had asked that the usage of placing the consecrated bread in the hand of the faithful be admitted in their territories, the Supreme Pontiff decreed that each bishop of the entire Latin Church should be asked his opinion concerning the appropriateness of introducing this rite. A change in a matter of such importance, which rests on a very ancient and venerable tradition, besides touching upon discipline can also include dangers. These may be feared from a new manner of administering Holy Communion: they are a lessening of reverence toward the noble Sacrament of the altar, its profanation, or the adulteration of correct doctrine.

Three questions were therefore proposed to the bishops. Up to March 12 (1969) the following responses had been received:

1. Does it seem that the proposal should be accepted by which, besides the traditional mode, the rite of receiving Holy Communion in the hand would be permitted? Yes: 567 No: 1,233 Yes, with reservations: 315 Invalid votes: 20

2. Should experiments with this new rite first take place in small communities, with the assent of the local Ordinary? Yes: 751 No: 1,215 Invalid votes: 70

3. Do you think that the faithful, after a well planned catechetical preparation, would accept this new rite willingly? Yes: 835 No: 1,185 Invalid votes: 128 From the responses received it is thus clear that by far the greater number of bishops feel that the present discipline should not be changed at all, indeed that if it were changed, this would be offensive to the sensibilities and spiritual appreciation of these bishops and of most of the faithful.

Please remember Byron Harries and Michael Davies in your prayers, we need more of their ilk today.

1. Hail, Thou who man's Redeemer art,
Jesu, the joy of every heart;
Great Maker of the world's wide frame,
And purest love's delight and flame:
2. What nameless mercy Thee o'ercame,
To bear out load of sin and shame?
For guiltless, Thou Thy life didst give,
That sinful erring man might live.
3. The realms of woe are forced by Thee,
Its captives from their chains set free;
And Thou, amid Thy ransomed train,
At God's right hand dost victor reign.
4. Let mercy sweet with Thee prevail,
To cure the wounds we now bewail;
Oh, bless us with Thy holy sight,
And fill us with eternal light.
5. Our guide, our way to heavenly rest,
Be Thou the aim of every breast;
Be Thou the soother of our tears,
Our sweet reward above the spheres

St Leo's Sermon for The Ascension

"In truth it was a great and ineffable cause of rejoicing, when in the sight of a holy multitude, human nature ascended above the ranks of the Angels, to be raised beyond the heights of the Archangels; and not to have any degree of loftiness set as a limit to its advancement, short of the right hand of the eternal Father, where it should be associated to His royal glory, to whose nature it was united in the Son.

Since then, Christ's Ascension is our own exultation, and where the glory of the head has gone before, thither is the hope of the body summoned, let us, dearly beloved, exult with due rejoicing and be glad, devoutly giving thanks.

For today, not only have we been confirmed in the possession of paradise, but in Christ we have penetrated even the heights of heaven; having gained, through the ineffable grace of Christ, far more than we lost through the malice of the devil.

For those, whom that virulent enemy cast down from the happiness of their first estate, these has the Son of God made to be one body with Himself, and placed at the right hand of the Father; with whom He liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God through all eternity.Amen."

Restore the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate

Pray that the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate be taken "out of the crypt"

God bless our Pope

A Mother's prayer for her soldier son

As Thou didst walk in Galilee, so loving Saviour, walk with him for me: For since the years have passed and he has grown, I cannot follow, he must walk alone. Be Thou my feet that I have had to stay, for Thou canst comrade him on every way. Be Thou my voice, when sinful things allure, pleading with him to choose those that endure. Be Thou my hand that would keep his in mine, all, all things that a mother must resign. When he was little I could walk with him and guide but now, I pray Thee, Thou be at his side. And as Thy Blessed Mother folded Thee, so kind and loving Saviour, guard my son for me.

Cradle Catholic, Burnt Oak Dominican educated, blogging on all Catholic issues from a traditional perspective.
All visitors and commentators are welcome but please remember, this blog is a traditional Catholic one and takes no prisoners.I wholeheartedly support Rev James (who is not a person but a rather fine Welsh bitter ale).
Not Welsh but living in Wales.
Vincit pericula Virtus

They think that death is waiting at the end of the ride, that life is like the lane and that death waits at the end. Listen. That is death on the other side of the side of the hedgerow. And that swift shadow that is gone, before you turn, from the corner of your eye – that is death. And the whisper you scarcely hear through the sounds of the birds calling and the wind in the leaves – that is death. Not waiting, but there beside you within reach, within earshot, so close that if you should look you would see your breath cloud on his presence. There he is, just out of sight behind the wild rose and the blackthorn, not behind you, nor before you, but beside you…

Alice Thomas Ellis

Cardinal Mindszenty - a modern martyr

"A mother is the most important person on earth. She cannot claim the honour of building Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any Cathedral - A dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby's body."

St Therese de Lisieux

Ora pro nobis!

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